Here’s a little exchange from Reddit that I found on ShitRedditSays that basically sums up everything that’s less-than-charming about the site. We start off with a blanket statement of male superiority, followed by an enthusiastically upvoted rape joke, and then we get massive downvoting and a “fuck you” to someone who’s challenging the blanket statement. (If you follow the link you’ll see that Butch_Magnus isn’t the only one jumping on piv0t.)
The context: This is from the Pics subreddit; they’re discussing a “sexist treadmill” with a control panel that looks like this:
Oh for fucks sake. Ew.
And yet again, the stupid. It burns. Could they at least come up with something interesting or thought-provoking?
That control panel makes sense. It’s harder to run in a dress than in the buff.
The abundance of MRAs, the rape jokes, the child porn…Reddit seems like such a lovely place.
Well isn’t this lovely and normal.
Gag.
“That control panel makes sense. It’s harder to run in a dress than in the buff.”
Can we please focus on this joke instead of the reddit thread, please? At least it’s actually funny.
This actually isn’t even that bad by Reddit-misogyny standards. I posted it mainly because of how predictably Redditish it is. Oh, here comes the inevitable rape joke, right on schedule. And of course the guy who suggests that men might not be the best at absolutely everything gets piled on.
Just another day on Reddit!
EDIT: fixed something where I said the oppposite of wht I meant to say.
That picture baffled me until I read the other comments: the treadmill uses the buttons for you to indicate your sex during setup.
As for the rest, hell, why not make a rape joke?
Oh, maybe because it’ll send actual survivors (rape is a thing that happens, newsflash) into thoughts like “I didn’t get the chance to run…” and is that really worth it for your dumb ass joke?
Okay, to be honest I think that “hence rape” comment could be darkly hilarious in the right context and coming from the right person. But Reddit isn’t and it didn’t.
I personally love that kind of fucked-up bitter sarcastic humor when you know that you’re on the same page as the person telling the joke; if this comment were meant as a critique of evopsych and its ridiculous concept of men as rapacious barely-human sex fiends, and rape as merely old-school caveman sex, then I’d be totally down with it.
“This actually isn’t even that bad by Reddit-misogyny standards. I posted it mainly because of how predictably Redditish it is. Oh, here comes the inevitable rape joke, right on schedule. And of course the guy who suggests that men are the best at everything gets piled on.
Just another day on Reddit!”
I knew there was a reason I can’t browse the place for more than 2 minutes, if that.
Can “in the buff” include some supportive undergarments? I appreciate those greatly.
@ crumbelievable
I have about five or so sites blocked on my browser under the heading “TERRIBLE NERDS” and Reddit is one of them. If I go on there I make myself so upset that I can’t really function. And I’m not just talking about the wacky subreddits, either, I’m talking about really mundane subreddits (like this one) about games or cooking or cat pictures or whatever. Reddit is a minefield filled with rape jokes and racist slurs and some of the most morally suspect people I’ve seen outside of 4chan.
Funnily (“funnily”) enough, most of the nerdy women I know from offline tend to avoid Reddit like the plague, and correspondingly, a lot of the nerdy straight white men I know seem to be totally oblivious about why Reddit would be avoidance-worthy. I actually got into a really nasty fight with a friend about Reddit because he was taking the “It’s free speech and therefore you can’t even take a moral stance against it because that makes you a censor, and also there is nothing morally wrong about Reddit’s total lack of giving-a-shit about the nasty climate on the site” position… after I showed him that beatingupwomen subreddit. This was from a dude who claimed he was a feminist ally, btw.
“Can “in the buff” include some supportive undergarments? I appreciate those greatly.”
Depends.
…Hold on, are there any Nude gyms, like they have nude beaches, or would that be deadly due to the sweat and stuff? (Sexy, yes…deadly and unhygenic, probably)
You’d definitely have to wipe down the equipment thoroughly before you use it at a nude gym.
I wonder if nudist camps have gyms.
I’m really curious what the others are.
(It seems like you’d need a whitelist not a blacklist sometimes to get away from this…)
4chan, Fark, YouTube comments, and basically any non-pony-related gaming site seem to qualify.
Hmm. My mom has outran *and* beat the shit out of an attempted rapist.
There will be no supportive undergarments! You must run in pain!
Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to go jogging.
It’s fairly standard for the treadmill to ask for sex and weight to work out how much energy you’re burning during a session (presumably what is “sexist” is setting average parameters for women such as greater endurance at a lower rate of work; the variance between individual women would surely often exceed the average difference between women and men).
Objection; Bronies completely and totally live up to the ‘bro’. Also they think they’re the bright center of the pony universe, but arrogance isn’t the main problem in this context.
Xanthe: might the sex thing be because men on average have more of their body mass consist of muscle than women do? That could affect the calorie count.
Seriously? Even the pony sites aren’t safe?!?!
I feel betrayed by the entire world now.
Everyone you run towards will think you’re scolding them…
@Holly
I mostly block sites that I have a personal problem with getting caught up in. I am sort of a “rubbernecker” I guess and find it very hard to pull myself away from reading all sorts of terrible things for hours and making myself feel increasingly worse. So I started to block some of the worst culprits. (This is why Manboobz is great for me, because David reads all the terrible MRA/PUA stuff so I don’t have to.)
What’s on the list right now is:
Reddit (already explained)
The Something Awful forums (MRA-style misogyny/”edgy” people/terrible political opinions)
4chan & Encyclopedia Dramatica (pretty obvious)
Metafilter (I wavered on blocking them for the longest time, because they are actually pretty good about smacking down the worst of it, but there are a few people there who are clueless as bricks and hijack every post with “That Uncle We All Avoid”-style rants)
Fark is exactly the type of site I would have to block, but fortunately I’ve never spent too much time there.
Sometimes I consider blocking all of Tumblr because I always end up clicking links and SURPRISE! a huge graphic picture of self-injury. And the social justice arguments on there end up giving me headaches, because there are a lot of 13-year-olds competing in the Oppression Olympics (“You’re privileged!” “No, you are!”) and people arguing if you use the pronoun “zie” instead of “ze” genderqueer people will just fall over and die en masse from being triggered. I have to stay away from the wacky trans stuff on Tumblr in particular for my mental health because I have a lot of personal gender issues and it just sends me up the wall.
I have another list called “AWFUL PEOPLE” which only has one blog on it so far, a notorious anti-trans blogger who I’m not going to mention because she’s like Beetlejuice and will show up and harass people if you mention her name. I spent way too much time on her site because I thought she was genuinely concerned about feminism and just taking things too far, and I spent way too long being charitable until I got to this post where she said she was basically writing a paper for a relative or something. I have no idea why it was THAT that sealed the deal and not any of the other 10,000 terrible things she’s done, but I was like, “fuck this”, and blocked her forever.
“My mom has outran *and* beat the shit out of an attempted rapist.”
I’m waiting for NWO to pipe in here:
What if he was trying to tell her something important? herp derp
Wasn’t it misandrist that this woman assumed he was trying to rape her? herpa derpa derp
Where’s this man’s compensation for being beaten by a woman? (not enough herp derps in the world)
Kladle – Thanks for your list, and complete agreement. (Especially about Something Awful, which sometimes hosts some really interesting and talented people and then completely drowns them out in a sea of “lol rape.”)
Tumblr… frankly, I kinda like that it’s got people who will call each other out on trans and other issues. There’s no question that it gets a little ridiculous, but I prefer that times a billion to people who just speak thoughtlessly and accuse you of being “sensitive and PC” if it bothers you.